Birds of High Range Mountain Landscape, Munnar A Literature Review Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History November 2015 Birds of Munnar High Ranges Mountain Landscape -A Literature Review Project Plant- Animal (birds and butterflies) community studies in various landscape elements of Munnar High Range Mountain Landscape Principal Investigators: Dr Arun P R Dr Karunakaran P V & Dr Balakrishnan P Research Staff: Mr Rameshkumar S Dr Ramarajan S Mr Anoop Raj P N Funding Agency: UNDP Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History November 2015 2 CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 5 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE.............................................................................................. 7 2.1 Studies on the Distribution of Birds............................................................................. 8 2.2 Studies on the Ecology and CONSERVATION OF birds........................................... 8 3 STATUS OF BIRDS OF HIGH RANGES ......................................................................... 9 4 AVIFAUNAL PROFILE OF PROTECTED AREAS IN HIGH RANGES ..................... 14 4.1 Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary........................................................................................ 14 4.2 Eravikulam National Park .......................................................................................... 16 4.3 Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary......................................................................................... 18 4.4 Kurinjimalai Wildlife Sanctuary ................................................................................ 21 4.5 Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary .......................................................................................... 23 4.6 Anaimudi Shola National Park................................................................................... 26 4.7 Papmpadum shola National Park ............................................................................... 27 4.8 Munnar Hills .............................................................................................................. 28 5 REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 31 3 TABLES Table 1 Studies on the ecology of Avifauna of HRML.................................................................. 9 Table 2 Threatened and Near Threatened Birds of High Ranges ................................................. 10 Table 3 Status of Birds in Protected Areas of High Ranges ......................................................... 10 Table 4 Family-wise species richness of birds ............................................................................. 11 Table 5 Family wise distribution of birds in Chinnar WLS.......................................................... 14 Table 6 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Chinnar WLS......... 16 Table 7 Family wise distribution of birds in Eravikulam NP ....................................................... 17 Table 8 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Eravikulam NP ...... 18 Table 9 Family wise distribution of birds in Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary..................................... 19 Table 10 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Thattekkad Bird Sanctuary ........................................................................................................................ 21 Table 11 Family wise distribution of birds in Kurunjimalai wildlife Sanctuary .......................... 22 Table 12 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Kurunjimalai Wild Sanctuary ............................................................................................................... 22 Table 13 Family wise distribution of birds in Idukki wildlife Sanctuary..................................... 23 Table 14 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Idukki WLS ......... 25 Table 15 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Anaimudi Shola National Park .................................................................................................................. 27 Table 16 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Papmpadum shola National Park......................................................................................................... 27 Table 17 Family wise distribution of birds in Idukki wildlife Sanctuary..................................... 28 Table 18 Threatened, Near Threatened and Western Ghat Endemic birds of Munnar Hills........ 30 FIGURES Figure 1 Munnar High Range Mountain Landscape....................................................................... 6 Figure 2 Proportion of studies conducted on various aspects of ornithology in HRML ................ 7 Figure 3 Number of publications on research conducted on the various aspects of ornithology in Munnar HRML from 1970s to the present ................................................................... 8 4 The scenic landscape of High Ranges is located in the northern part of the Southern Western 1 INTRODUCTION Ghats. It encompasses three sub regions namely, the central high range (Kannan Devan Hills), the Eastern Anjanad Valley (Marayoor) and the western Pooyamkutty –Idamalayar valleys. As acclaimed ecologist and environmentalist Dr.Sathis Chandran Nair describes, the High Ranges comprises of the widest and highest reaches of the Western Ghats in Kerala. Most of the forests of high ranges are on the western slopes drained by Idamalayar and Pooyamkutty Rivers and their valleys. The River originates from the eastern side of Kannan Devan Hills are drained into Amaravathi River through Chinnar. The forest types of High Ranges include high elevation montane-forests and grasslands, humid and high elevation forests, humid mid elevation and humid low elevation evergreen forests in the windward side and dry forests in the Anjanad Valley. The present land use pattern of high ranges include Protected areas (Eravikulam National Park, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary, Kurinjimala Wildlife Sanctuary, Anaimudi National Park, Pampadum shola National Park, Mathikettan shola National Park, Thattekkad Bird Sanctury and Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary), non proteted areas such as Malayattoor, Kothamangalam, Mankulam, Munnar, Marayoor and Kottayam Forest Divisions which encompasses vast stretches of High Value Biodiversity Areas, commercial plantations such as tea, Cardamom, and coffee, mixed cultivation area or human dominated home gardens, tribal settlements, river valley projects and urban/peri-urban areas. The High Ranges is rich in avian diversity with more than 300 species of birds including 15 of 16 western ghat endemic species. Among these , Nilgiri wood-pigeon, Broad-tailed grass bird, Kerala laughing thrush, White bellied short wing, Black-and-rufous flycatcher, Nilgiri flycatcher, White-bellied blue-flycatcher, Crimson- backed sunbird and Nilgiri pipit are habitat specialists confined to the high altitudes of the High Ranges. 5 Figure 1 Munnar High Range Mountain Landscape 6 Literatures pertaining to birds of High ranges were searched in various online sources like 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE Google Scholar, JSTOR, Bio-one, Reseach Gate, Sci-Hub, Bibliography of South Asian Ornithology using combinations of keywords including Munnar, Thattakad, Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary, Idukki, Eravikulam, Travancore, Cochin and Chinnar, High Ranges, Nilgiri Tahr, Kurunjimalai, Mannavan Shola, Mathikettan Shola, etc. Apart from Online sources Back Volumes of offline journals like Journal of Bombay Natural History Society, Newsletter for bird watchers, Indian Birds and Stray Feather were also searched. Although there are few unpublished dissertations in some local institutes especially in the camp office of Thattekkad, we could not follow up further due to the freezing of project activities. Out of 109 articles on the faunal studies, 53 studies were relevant to avifauna. Most of the studies (69%) were checklists or notes on the distribution of birds and a very few studies (21%) were on the ecology of birds (Fig 2). The Field notes on the ornithology of HRML were published by few British Naturalists in 1870s and more articles were started publishing from 1990s and long term ecological studies are carried out in the present decade (Fig 3) 4% 21% Distribution Diversity 6% Ecology 69% Habitat Figure 2 Proportion of studies conducted on various aspects of ornithology in HRML 7 Distribution Diversity Ecology Habitat 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 Number of Avifaunal studies 1870 to 1980 1981 to 1990 1991 to 2000 2001 to 2010 2011 to 2015 Year Figure 3 Number of publications on research conducted on the various aspects of ornithology in Munnar HRML from 1970s to the present 2.1 STUDIES ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF BIRDS This first published study of birds in this region is by Hume in 1876, 1878. Other classical literature on the avifauna of the study area includes Ferguson and Bourdillon (1903, 1904a, b) Ali & Whistler (1936), Stoner (1946), Primose (1938). Recent published checklists are available for certain locations of the study area such as Chinnar WLS (Katju 1995, Nameer and George 1991), Idukki (Prasad 1990) Thattakad Bird Sanctuary (Sugathan & Varghese 1996; Sugathan and Sivan 2000; Susanthkumar & Rafeek 1998), Eravikulam National Park (Uthaman 1999). Apart from these many new site reports are also